Crane collapses at Washington National Cathedral

Wednesday - 9/7/2011

WASHINGTON - A crane has collapsed at the National Cathedral, falling in two different buildings on the grounds and crushing several vehicles.

The crane, erected after a 5.8 earthquake damaged the cathedral, partially fell on Herb Cottage, which houses the cathedral gift shop.

The gift shop was temporarily closed following last month's temblor.

The crane also grazed the Church House, where offices for Bishop John Chane and the diocese are located.

There is no word on the extent of injuries, but the crane operator was taken to the hospital to be evaluated. the rest

Study: Australian children’s mental health deteriorating due to marriage breakdown

by Thaddeus Baklinski
Tue Sep 06, 2011

(LifeSiteNews.com) - The psychological well-being of children and young people, especially young girls, in Australia has deteriorated significantly in the past 10 years, according to a report released today by Professor Patrick Parkinson of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney.

The “For Kids’ Sake” report, commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), found that rising divorce rates, the breakdown of cohabiting relationships, and the increase in children born to single mothers is largely responsible for that deterioration.

The report emphasizes the negative impact of family breakdown “in particular to a rapidly worsening situation for vulnerable teenage girls.”

“In Australia, the number of children who do no reach the age of 15 in an intact family with both of their biological parents has almost doubled within a generation,” Prof. Parkinson states. the rest

Obama's abortion absolutism and the 1st Amendment

September 6, 2011
by Timothy P. Carney
Senior Political Columnist


In 1994, abortion-lobby champion Ted Kennedy passed the Free Access to Clinics Act (FACE), which imposes stricter limitations on peaceful protests of abortion clinics than any other peaceful protest.
This law, which strikes me as pretty darn unconstitutional, has never really been enforced. Tom McClusky at the Family Research Council says the decision to not enforce it was a "gentleman's agreement": "The story I normally got from Justice Department, Hill and real world lawyers on both sides of the aisle was that everyone understood the law was unconstitutional...."

But now, NPR reports, Obama is deciding to crack down on those protesting, conducting sidewalk counseling, or even praying for the mothers and their babies.

Here's NPR's report on one of the Obama Administration's targets: the rest

This President, as a State Senator, voted against a bill requiring doctors to care for babies born after failed abortions (and then misled the media on the matter). As a candidate, he promised his first act would be signing the sweeping "Freedom of Choice Act," which would wipe out nearly all limitations on abortion and abortion subsidies. And then during the budget debates we saw him draw nearly his only line in the sand over Planned Parenthood subsidies.

Marriage's decline in blue collar America

Glenn T. Stanton
Sep 6, 2011

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (BP) -- There are two seismic -- yet under-the-radar -- trends happening in marriage and family today, but too few have taken note of them. The evangelical church would be wise to appreciate them, as we seek to minister in this area.

The first is the continued and growing alienation of men from family life. This alienation can be attributed to many things: the male's own choosing, women and culture's growing negative and unrealistic attitudes about men, artificial reproductive technology among single women as well as the push for parenting and adoption rights by same-sex couples. I have written about these previously.

The second is discussed here: The growing marginalization of marriage in blue collar America while it's doing better among the more educated classes. This has important consequences for the greater cementing of class divides.

A unique and important report has just been released by the Brookings Institute, co-authored by two of the world's leading marriage scholars: The more socially conservative W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and the socially liberal Andrew J. Cherlin, professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University.

Both scholars are concerned about the marked decline of marriage among those who have graduated from high school, but who have no college degree. This encompasses a full 58 percent of the adult U.S. population. the rest

You’ve Been Guttmacher’d: Planned Parenthood’s Baby

by Ryan Bomberger
LifeNews.com
9/6/11

Anytime journalists feel the need to reinforce unexamined Planned Parenthood statements, they pull the Guttmacher card. The Guttmacher Institute, founded by former Planned Parenthood President and former Vice President of the American Eugenics Society, Alan F. Guttmacher, is continually lavished with misleading credentials by mainstream media.

NPR and the Washington Post call it a “nonpartisan research group”. ABC and CNN refer to Guttmacher’s abortion activist staff as “researchers”. USA Today calls the public policy organization a “non-profit group that studies reproductive and sexual health”.

Where are all of the easy pejoratives like “extreme” or “anti-choice” and “partisan”? They’re just much easier to affix to groups like mine, The Radiance Foundation, that present the empirical evidence while opposing the destruction that abortion brings. the rest

The Guttmacher Institute was birthed in 1968 as a research arm of Planned Parenthood. In the late 70s, for public relations and credibility issues, both organizations performed a public separation declaring that Guttmacher was no longer affiliated with Planned Parenthood (PPFA) in any way.

Who Controls the Pulpit?

September 6th, 2011

by Jeremy Dys

I cannot think of a single pastor that I know who would answer that question with any answer but, “Christ himself.” Yet, that does not seem to be the way the IRS and some politicians view it. In fact, if the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are to be believed, on some things, pastors must remain silent.

For most of the history of Christianity, governments have tried – and failed – to silence what is said in the pulpits. Words of Truth, spoken in convicting Grace, cut to the joint and marrow. Hardened hearts and unwashed ears run when they are laid bare before Scripture.

This, I believe, is in part why we see abortionists, secularists, pornographers, and homosexual activists so bothered by pastors speaking on moral issues that touch on politics. They are quick to invoke, the ‘separation of church and state’ as if it were a newly discovered doctrine of the faith that cancels out the command of Christ to make disciples of all nations.

As a result, many pastors have self-censored their messages and slowly justified their silence with claims of “peace” and “unity.” Their silence has left those in the pews without encouragement and instruction. Such self-censoring has made a culture devoid of salt quite bland. the rest image

Men of the pulpit: preach the Gospel. Preach not a moralism that fails. Preach the Gospel.

One Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring

By JACQUELINE MROZ
September 5, 2011

So Ms. Daily searched a Web-based registry for other children fathered by the same donor and helped to create an online group to track them. Over the years, she watched the number of children in her son’s group grow.

And grow.

Today there are 150 children, all conceived with sperm from one donor, in this group of half siblings, and more are on the way. “It’s wild when we see them all together — they all look alike,” said Ms. Daily, 48, a social worker in the Washington area who sometimes vacations with other families in her son’s group.

As more women choose to have babies on their own, and the number of children born through artificial insemination increases, outsize groups of donor siblings are starting to appear. While Ms. Daily’s group is among the largest, many others comprising 50 or more half siblings are cropping up on Web sites and in chat groups, where sperm donors are tagged with unique identifying numbers. the rest

Now, there is growing concern among parents, donors and medical experts about potential negative consequences of having so many children fathered by the same donors, including the possibility that genes for rare diseases could be spread more widely through the population. Some experts are even calling attention to the increased odds of accidental incest between half sisters and half brothers, who often live close to one another.       

Devotional: God wants warm-hearted servants...

God wants warm-hearted servants. The Holy Spirit comes as a fire, to dwell in us; we are to be baptized, with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Fervency is warmth of soul...If our religion does not set us on fire, it is because we have frozen hearts. God dwells in a flame; the Holy Ghost descends in fire. To be absorbed in God's will, to be so greatly in earnest about doing it that our whole being takes fire, is the qualifying condition of the man who would engage in effectual prayer. ...EM Bounds
image by Angus MacRae

Anglican church in Qatar to be fully operational next year

The Anglican Centre in Doha's church complex will be fully operational by the end of next year, the church rector has said
By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
September 6, 2011

The Anglican Centre in Doha's church complex will be fully operational by the end of next year, the church rector has said.

According to Father Bill Schwartz, the 35 million Qatari riyal complex, under construction since 2008, will be ready by the end of 2012 and will offer Christian Protestant denominational groups a location to worship.

"Building is moving ahead apace, and moving ahead in line with our expectations. The building should be usable by Christmas next year," he said, quoted by Qatari daily Gulf Times. the rest

Gallup: Uninsured Have Increased Under Obama and Since Obamacare Was Enacted

Tuesday, September 06, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) - The percentage of American adults who lack health insurance coverage has not only increased during the presidency of Barack Obama, but it has continued to increase since Obama signed his signature piece of legislation last year mandating that by 2014 every American carry health insurance, according to a Gallup survey released today.

In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, according to Gallup, 14.9 percent of adult residents of the United States lacked health insurance coverage. That increased to 16.2 percent in 2009, the year that Obama was inaugurated, and to 16.4 percent in 2010, the year that Obama signed his law requiring that all Americans have health insurance. the rest

Bigger Birth Control Bucks Not Working: PP Making No Progress Against Unintended Pregnancy

Guttmacher Study Reveals Startling New Data
CHICAGO
Sept. 6, 2011
Christian Newswire

According to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute, increased funding for Planned Parenthood has had no impact on the rate of unintended pregnancies across the nation, as Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-Life Action League, stated in his latest commentary. Even more startling is the unintended pregnancy rate among poor women, which the Guttmacher report says has "increased dramatically."

This data, released in August, reveals that despite a steady increase in government funding, topping $305 million by 2006, the nation's largest abortion provider has made zero impact on one of the very problems they have used to justify these huge taxpayer-financed subsidies. In an August 24, 2011 Planned Parenthood press release in response to the study, the group's president, Cecile Richards, skirted the issue, declaring, "There is no question that birth control prevents unintended pregnancy."

Planned Parenthood provides over 330,000 abortions every year and brings in over a billion dollars annually, but is still fighting to protect its government subsidies -- amounting to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars sent to its clinics every year. the rest

Internet archive shows Sept. 11 coverage

DAVID BAUDER

Monday, September 5, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — For many in New York and Washington, Sept. 11, 2001, was a personal experience, an attack on their cities. Most everywhere else in the world, it was a television event.

TV's commemoration as the 10th anniversary approaches on Sunday puts that day in many different contexts. There is one place, however, for people to see the Sept. 11 attacks and the week after as they unfolded, without any filters.

The Internet Archive, a California-based organization that collects audio, moving images and Web pages for historical purposes, has put together a television news archive of that day's coverage. the rest 

Internet Archive for 9/11

CDC: Half of Americans will suffer from mental health woes

By Steven Reinberg
posted September 6, 2011

About half of Americans will experience some form of mental health problem at some point in their life, a new government report warns, and more must be done to help them.

Mental health issues run the gamut from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder to suicide, and many of those suffering presently do not get help, experts say.

The new report, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tallied the national burden of mental illness based on country-wide surveys. the rest

Suspension of Air Force Class Over Bible Passages 'Misrepresents First Amendment,' Lawmaker Argues

By Todd Starnes
September 05, 2011

A Texas lawmaker is asking for a detailed report from the Air Force over revelations that a “Just War Theory” class was suspended because it included passages from the Bible.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, sent a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley expressing his concern over the suspension of the class taught at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

“Suspending a course like this because of references to religious texts misrepresents the First Amendment,” Cornyn wrote in a letter provided exclusively to Fox News Radio. “Although our Founding Fathers rightly included language in the Constitution that precludes the Federal government from establishing an official religion, this language does not, as some have argued, protect them from exposure to religious references.” the rest

Devotional: "In the shadow of His hand He hid me."

"In the shadow of His hand He hid me." What a beautiful picture of the loving, nurturing care with which God surrounds His children. It is as though the hand of God were cupped over each of us, forming its protective shield against all danger, affording us shelter from the blazing heat of adversity. Because we are hidden in the shadow of His hand, no foe can alarm us, no harm can befall us. Under His protecting hand we are safe from every evil that would assail us. The shadow of His hand affords peace and rest. For Jesus' sake, the hand that casts the shadow removes from us our every burden of guilt and shame. In the shadow of His hand we find spiritual refreshment, for there we feed on His Word, and there we are blessed by His Spirit, who restores our souls and renews our hearts. Isaiah 49:2 ...Anonymous  image

Facebook Page for Jesus, With Highly Active Fans

By JENNIFER PRESTON
September 4, 2011

A North Carolina diet doctor has come up with a formula to create the most highly engaged audience on Facebook in the world, far surpassing marketing efforts by celebrities and sports teams. He draws on the words of Jesus and posts them four or five times a day.

For the last three months, more people have “Liked,” commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber’s page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. “I wanted to provide people with encouragement,” said Dr. Tabor, who keeps his diet business on a separate Facebook page. “And I thought I would give it a news spin by calling it daily.”        

For the last three months, more people have “Liked,” commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber’s page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. “I wanted to provide people with encouragement,” said Dr. Tabor, who keeps his diet business on a separate Facebook page. “And I thought I would give it a news spin by calling it daily.” the rest

But the increase in the number of people finding faith communities via social media platforms provokes the question of what constitutes religious experience and whether “friending” a church online is at all similar to worshiping at one.

Ireland: Clerical abusers shielded by ‘cabal’ of protection in church

Archbishop reveals Cloyne abusers may have 'friends in the Vatican'
By RONALD QUINLAN and MAEVE SHEEHAN
Sunday September 04 2011

The Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has admitted that "a cabal" protecting clerical sex abusers may be operating at the highest levels in the Catholic Church.

Dr Martin said: "There may be a cabal in Cloyne. They may have friends in other parts of the Irish Church. They may have friends in Irish society. There may be friends in the Vatican."

Asked yesterday who was preventing the protection of children, he said: "The numbers that are involved in this are few. The damage that these people cause is horrendous. It's for all of us to see where they are, but in the long term I have to take the responsibility that in Dublin there are not cabals who reject our child protection laws. the rest

PHILADELPHIA: Anglo-Catholic Parish Regroups after Priest/Bishop is Ousted

Assisting PA Bishop makes personal visit to once exiled parish
By David W. Virtue
September 5, 2011

The Church of the Good Shepherd Anglo-Catholic parish on Philadelphia's historic mainline heard PA Assisting Bishop Rodney Michel say that the vestry was free to choose its new rector from the "Oxford Movement of the Anglican Communion" while welcoming the parish back into the Episcopal Church after a decades' long legal battle.

Speaking humbly to some 85 members of the parish at two services yesterday, Bishop Michel said that the reading from today's passage in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 18:15-20) about Christians not engaging in lawsuits was timely. He called on the congregation to engage in a process of healing and to repair the the breach and brokenness while continuing to make a witness to Jesus Christ."

"You must be about the building up of the Kingdom in this neighborhood. Your dedication to Catholic order must be honored and respected. You must respect those differences of people in prayer to our blessed Lady." The bishop asked for prayer for the ousted Fr. David (Moyer) and his wife Rita in their new journey. the rest

Ireland: Anglican minister's civil partnership 'welcomed'

5 September 2011
BBC


A senior Church of Ireland minister has said his same-sex civil partnership, the first for an Anglican clergyman in Ireland, has been "warmly welcomed" by his congregation in County Carlow.

The Very Reverend Tom Gordon is originally from Portadown and is now Dean of Leighlin Cathedral.

He told the BBC that he and his partner of 20 years held the ceremony in a registry office in July.

He described it as a legal instrument and not equivalent to marriage.

The Anglican church in England, where several ministers have entered civil partnerships, requires those within them to remain celibate. the rest

NY seeks stop to wild hogs, may ban captive hunts

'Houdini-like escape artists' breed readily in the wild
By MARY ESCH
9/4/2011

Excerpt:
"We're not talking about Porky Pig getting loose from the farm," Rusz said. "These are Russian wild boars. Those animals are Houdini-like escape artists and they breed readily in the wild. We've had domestic pigs for centuries and never had a feral hog problem until the game ranches started bringing these in."

Wild pigs are intelligent and adaptable, eating almost anything and able to live in a wide range of habitats. They dig up cropland and lawns. They damage ecosystems by rooting and digging for food and devouring roots, stems, leaves, fruit, nuts, bark, bird eggs, mice, snakes and fawns. They compete with native wildlife for food such as acorns, carry diseases that can be transferred to wildlife, and destroy wetlands with their wallowing.

Feral swine multiply rapidly, with sows producing several litters a year of four to six piglets, so as with any invasive species, it's crucial to mount aggressive eradication efforts before the population is widely established, Batcheller said. They're also wily and secretive, and become even more so when people try to shoot or trap them. the rest image

Mental disorders common across Europe

Monday, September 5, 2011

A study has revealed that more than a third of EU citizens suffer from a mental disorder.

The research found that 38.2% of people had some kind of mental disorder, with the most common forms being anxiety, insomnia and depression. Among those surveyed, 14% suffered from anxiety, 7% from insomnia, and 6.9% from major depression.

Men and women were as likely to suffer from a disorder but tended to experience different mental health problems, the Press Association reports.

While men are more likely to be alcohol dependent, women were two-and-a-half times more likely than men to suffer depression, particularly during child-bearing years. the rest

Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
September 4, 2011

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”

In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. the rest

An Open Letter to a College Freshman

By Timothy Dalrymple
September 1, 2011

Dear Freshman,

At last your time has come. Leaving behind the old world and the deep ruts you carved in the corner of that world that belonged to you, you’re off to explore undiscovered countries, to join a new and ever-replenishing society of fascinating people and learned scholars and impassioned artists and driven achievers, off to a place where the world is new and so are you. Whether or not your college years will be “the best years of your life,” they will almost certainly be among the most transformative.

The question is whether that transformation will be for the better. Unmoored from the people and places that once defined you, you’ll feel a fluidity in your identity that’s both thrilling and frightening. You may feel as though you can be anyone and become anything. I pray that you will become who you are — the individual you most truly and deeply are, the one God dreamt of when he made you — and not the person that you or your parents or your friends think you should be. In service to that end, I thought I would offer seven pieces of advice. Though it feels churlish to say so, I offer this advice on the basis of some personal experience — more than many and less than some, with four undergraduate years at Stanford, three at Princeton Seminary and seven at Harvard for my Ph.D. I did a fair amount of teaching, came to know many professors well, and spent time too at universities overseas. So, on the basis of those experiences, here are my thoughts:

1. Seek wisdom, not merely intelligence. My father shared this advice with me before my departure for Stanford, and he was precisely right. On a university campus, intelligence is common. Wisdom is rare. Intelligence is cheap, because it’s inherited freely; wisdom is of inestimable value because it’s gained through suffering and sacrifice and years of hard study and experience. Every night at Stanford I watched the most intelligent people doing the most foolish of deeds, chasing after the most worthless of goals, and believing the most baseless of things. Their intelligence did nothing to make them more loving or joyful or genuine. In fact, in many cases it led them astray, as they came to worship their own intellectual powers along with the admiration and accolades and material consolations they could win. They became immune to criticism, self-indulgent, and chasers of intellectual fashions. When you love the reputation of intelligence, then you will do and believe those things that will sustain that reputation. Intelligence does not make you more likely to do what is right or believe what is true. This is why it’s important to…

2. Seek mentors, not merely teachers...

the rest-this is excellent! Send to every college student you know.

Devotional: We must rediscover and reclaim our spiritual heritage...

We must rediscover and reclaim our spiritual heritage. The emerging new world of the twenty-first century may be new to us, but it is not new to our spiritual ancestors - the developed Christian community in the midst of a very similar culture. If by God's grace they could do it, so can we. Christians are commissioned to witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ is called out of the world for the purpose of sharing new life.... The purpose of the minister is to equip people to build up the Body of Christ. The purpose of laity is to pass on to others the new life God has given them. The goal is never simply to "run to the church," no matter what size the church may be. ...Bill Easum image

Book Review: Reckless Endangerment

Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner
Book review by Raymond Dague
posted September 3, 2011

For anyone puzzling over where blame lies for the financial meltdown of the late summer of 2008, this is a book to read. The answer might be surprising. Gretchen Morgenson, the principal author, is a business and financial editor and a columnist for The New York Times. The book is a detailed account of what, who, how, and why behind the financial meltdown which nearly plunged the country into a second great depression in the waning days of the George W. Bush presidency.

The general assumption of many, especially partisans with no love for President Bush, is that because it happened toward the end of his eight year presidency his policies must have been at fault. President Obama rarely lets a week go by without blaming the current economic problems on President Bush, or only slightly more subtly, “the situation which we inherited.” Yet the problem runs far deeper than blame of the Republican administration during which it occurred.

The 2008 financial crisis can be traced directly to the early years of the presidency of Bill Clinton. President Clinton in 1994 proclaimed the need for more Americans to be homeowners. He set the goal of 70% of the populace living in homes they own. He relentlessly pursued that policy by causing his young secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, to have his bureaucracy issue regulations which encouraged banks and other lending institutions to drop the standards for home mortgages. That included a virtual elimination of the 20% down payment which homeowners needed to qualify for a mortgage, and the age old wisdom enshrined in the banking industry that the homeowner’s monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 25% of his take home pay. With a few regulation changes, and accusations that banks were engaging in “redlining” discrimination against inner city neighborhoods, the nation’s traditional banks were quickly persuaded to make mortgage loans which a few years earlier would have resulted in a quick mortgage rejection letter.

New lenders came to prominence such as Countrywide Financial, United Companies Financial, NovaStar, and Fremont Investment and Loan. They made billions of dollars on these newly minted mortgages to borrowers who traditionally could not have gotten a mortgage to buy a house. Bankers called the good mortgage prospects, prime candidates. This new class of borrowers became known as sub-prime. These sub-prime mortgages were issued by the lenders and then sold in huge blocks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two private corporations are “government-sponsored enterprises,” meaning that they were in 1994 private corporations, but ones which the public largely perceived to be guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

During the Clinton years Fannie Mae, the larger of the two, was run by James A. Johnson. Johnson successfully lobbied congress to see that his agency was never effectively regulated. Johnson and the executives of his organization and the lenders made millions each year in salaries and bonuses. But Fannie Mae and the many lenders which sold their mortgages to Fannie Mae were undercapitalized. They made risky loans to people who could not afford them. When these sub-prime homeowners started defaulting in large numbers, the whole house of cards came down, and voila, the financial crisis of 2008. Most of those lenders are now in bankruptcy and Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are now under government control and bailout. Johnson and his fellow executives got off while the American taxpayers pay the bills.

While all of this was unfolding the congress, mostly run by the Democrats, was asleep at the switch. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, Democrat from Massachusetts are mentioned prominently in this book as being cosy with Johnson and Fannie Mae. Perhaps the ultimate insult added to injury is when these two powerful Democrats devised the congressional response to the crisis. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to supposedly insure that such a financial crisis could never happed again. But the new law, despite its massive size and scope, utterly failed to address the to-big-to fail institutions such as Fannie Mae. The law did nothing to increase accountability of those running these huge financial institution, nor did it even address the issues of how to resolve the insolvent Fannie and Freddy situation. When such behemoth unmanageable financial institutions get in trouble in the future, the government (meaning the taxpayers) will have no alternative but to again bail them out, or alternatively to let them fail and then face national financial collapse as we did in the summer of 2008.

If one expects partisan reasons given from the left side of the political spectrum from this New York Times reporter, they will be greatly disappointed by this book. As for many of the cast of characters who were responsible for allowing all of this to happen on their watch, many are in the Obama Administration or with close ties to the current president. So much for the penchant of the current administration to blame today’s financial problems on “the situation which we inherited.” To a great degree, the people who allowed the current mess to happen on their watch are now serving in the current administration.

Cleric confirms gay partnership

3 September 2011
BY SAM McBRIDE

A SENIOR Church of Ireland minister has entered a same-sex civil partnership.

In what is believed to be the first gay union involving a serving Church of Ireland cleric, the Very Rev Tom Gordon, who is originally from Portadown, yesterday confirmed that he had formalised the relationship under new laws introduced in the Republic earlier this year.

The Rev Gordon, who is Dean of Leighlin Cathedral in Co Carlow, said that the ceremony had taken place at a registry office on July 29.

A spokesman for the Church of Ireland declined to comment in detail, saying that it was a “civil matter”. the rest

Rep. Keith Ellison, from Catholic to Muslim

September 1st, 2011
By Chris Welch, CNN

Prior to 2006, few people even knew that then-Minnesota state legislator Keith Ellison was a Muslim. Because of his English name, he said, no one thought to ask.

But five years ago, when he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives - a race he would go on to win - word of his religious affiliation began to spread.

“When I started running for Congress it actually took me by surprise that so many people were fascinated with me being the first Muslim in Congress,” said Ellison, a Democrat now serving his third term in the House. the rest

Space junk reaching "tipping point," report warns

By Irene Klotz
 Thu Sep 1, 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla,. (Reuters) - The amount of debris orbiting the Earth has reached "a tipping point" for collisions, which would in turn generate more of the debris that threatens astronauts and satellites, according to a U.S. study released on Thursday.

NASA needs a new strategic plan for mitigating the hazards posed by spent rocket bodies, discarded satellites and thousands of other pieces of junk flying around the planet at speeds of 17,500 miles per hour, the National Research Council said in the study.

The council is one of the private, nonprofit U.S. national academies that provide expert advice on scientific problems.

Orbital debris poses a threat to the approximately 1,000 operational commercial, military and civilian satellites orbiting the Earth -- part of a global industry that generated $168 billion in revenues last year, Satellite Industry Association figures show. the rest image

Some computer models show the amount of orbital debris "has reached a tipping point, with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures," the research council said in a statement released Thursday as part its 182-page report.

'But if the Christians Make Problems for the Muslims, I Will Exterminate Them'

Senior Official in Egyptian Islamic Jihad: If We Come to Power, We will Launch a Campaign of Islamic Conquests to Instate Shari'a Worldwide: 'The Christian is Free to Worship His God in His Church, but if the Christians Make Problems for the Muslims, I Will Exterminate Them'
August 29, 2011
On August 13, 2011, the Egyptian daily Roz Al-Yousef published an interview[1] with Sheikh 'Adel Shehato, a senior official in Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), who, on March 23, 2011, was freed from prison in the wake of the Egyptian revolution. He was imprisoned in 1991 upon returning from a three-year sojourn in Afghanistan.

In the interview, Shehato expressed complete opposition to democracy "because it is not the faith of the Muslims, but the faith of the Jews and Christians." He said that although the youth of the Arab revolutions have not declared the implementation of shari'a as one of their goals, the mujahideen nonetheless identify with their aspiration to overthrow the Arab rulers, whom they had always considered "infidels who must be killed because they do not rule according to the shari'a." He added, however, that "once Allah's law is applied, the role of the people will end and Allah will reign supreme." He went on to say that although he supports Al-Qaeda's ideology, shari'a law would not be enforced by violence but by da'wa (preaching), whereas violence would be used only against the infidel Arab rulers.

Shehato said that if the mujahideen came to power in Egypt, they would launch a campaign of Islamic conquests aimed at subjecting the entire world to Islamic rule. Muslim ambassadors would be appointed to each country, charged with calling upon them to join Islam willingly, but if the countries refused, war would be waged against them. He also described the nature of the Islamic state to be established in Egypt: there would be no trade or cultural ties with non-Muslims; tourist sites at the pyramids, the Sphinx, and Sharm Al-Sheikh would be shut down "because the tourists come [there] to drink alcohol and fornicate," and all tourists wishing to visit Egypt would be required to comply with the conditions and laws of Islam; all art, painting, singing, dancing, and sculpture would be forbidden, and all culture would be purely Islamic. the rest

Canada: Women who abort after 19 weeks eligible maternity leave

by Patrick B. Craine
Fri Sep 02, 2011

 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life Canadians have complained for years that they are forced to pay for the direct killing of unborn children through the country’s health system. It turns out they are also paying for abortive mothers to get full maternity benefits.

Canada’s employment insurance guidelines reveal that a woman who aborts her child after 19 weeks gestation is eligible to receive 17 weeks of maternity leave, the same as a mother who gives birth. For an abortion occurring before 19 weeks gestation, the woman can collect sick leave for the same length of time.

“The whole situation is pretty ludicrous,” said Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Campaign Life Coalition. “Why should you pay for somebody killing their child, and then expect to pay for benefits if the child is no longer there?” the rest

“How is it fair that I am being asked, along with other taxpayers of good will, to not only pay for the assassination of a ‘less than perfect’ child, but that I am also paying for several months’ ‘maternity leave’?” asked Georges Buscemi, CQV’s president.

Alabama’s new bishop looks to future of Episcopal Church

A ‘trying decade’
by Brett Buckner

Known across the Episcopal landscape simply as “Kee,” Rev. John McKee Sloan is the new Alabama bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church, overseeing some 91 parish churches in the state.

Sloan was elected on July 16 in Birmingham from a field of four nominees to replace the Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley, who will be retiring in January after 15 years of serving as bishop. the rest

Q: What are your thoughts on gay clergy and same-sex marriages, as the issue continues to rage within other denominations?

A: That’s one of the real challenges of our time. The church is not … we don’t know. We have not made a decision about that. It’s something we’re still praying about, and that’s frustrating for some people. There are people who are frustrated that we are talking about this at all; they wish it would go away. There are others who wish we would get moving, that it’s something we shouldn’t be dragging our feet about. It’s a difficult, thorny issue.

We do have a diversity of theological positions in the church, which is the nature of our faith – that people have different ideas that are not lightly held. When they disagree … what do you do?

The inclination of this culture is to declare a winner and a loser, which is pretty good as long as you’re the winner, but that means leaving someone out.

This is something we need to work through together and we can’t do it in a hurry.

What I want most of all is for us to remember who we are and to love each other even if we disagree, be faithful and believe that the Holy Spirit is still part of the church. God has not abandoned us. We have not abandoned God. God is still working through us.

Anglican Unscripted

posted September 3, 2011

Kevin and George discuss some very recent history and the Church in China. Allan Haley discuses some of the unconstitutional legal tactics of TEC and Peter Ould talks about new challenges to the Church of Scotland.

AUSTRALIA TO REMOVE CHRIST FROM TEXTBOOKS

posted September 2, 2011
Todd Starnes

Christians in Australia are accusing national education officials of “Christian cleansing” in response to pending changes in school books that would remove references to the birth of Jesus Christ.

The government would replace the terms BC, Before Christ, and AD, Anno Domini, with non-religious language. The new terms will be BCE (Before Common Era), BP (Before Present) and CE (Common Era).

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority told The Herald Sun that the new terms were an increasingly common standard for the representation of dates. the rest image

Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, told The Daily Telegraph that taking references to the birth of Jesus Christ out of school books was an “intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history.”

A Breakdown of Gay Marriage Support by Religion

Here

Major Study Links Suicide and Other Mental Health Problems to Abortion

September 1, 2011
Mary L. Davenport, MD

An important meta-analysis published today in the prestigious British Journal of Psychiatry demonstrates that nearly 10% of mental health problems in women are directly attributable to abortion. "Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995-2009," by Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green University, shows that women with an abortion history have an 81% increased risk of mental health problems and 155% increased risk of suicide. This meta-analysis combines 22 studies of 877,181 women, 163, 831 of whom have had abortions. A meta-analysis is an especially powerful type of study because it includes a large number of subjects, and by combining studies is much more reliable than a single study.

This review, which is larger than any study to date, contradicts the recent and biased and less systematic review by the American Psychological Association, which fails to find a relationship between mental health problems and abortion. The new meta-analysis also contradicts the stance of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which has been silent on the mental health impact of abortion in its official publications despite overwhelming evidence over the last two decades of abortion's adverse effects.

The egregious cover-up of abortion complications is an aspect of "the abortion distortion." Elites in charge of professional organizations actively suppress legitimate research on the harms of induced abortion because of political bias or worse. One of the most notorious examples of "the abortion distortion" was the revelation that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan actually wrote part of ACOG's position statement on partial birth abortion while working as deputy assistant for domestic policy for Bill Clinton.  the rest

Largest ever study finds abortion increases risk of severe mental health problems by 81%
...The research revealed that abortion was associated with a 34% increased risk for anxiety disorders; 37% greater risk of depression; 110% greater risk of alcohol abuse and 220% greater risk of marijuana use/abuse.
Abortion was also linked with a 155% greater risk of attempting to commit suicide...

The Islamist Threat Inside Our Military

by M. Zuhdi Jasser
The Wall Street Journal
August 19, 2011

Excerpt:
There is an irreconcilable conflict between allegiance to the United States, with its secular Constitution, and fealty to the consciousness of an Islamist state that centers on the Quran as its constitution and the ummah (Muslim nation) as its global citizenry. The crucial question a Muslim soldier needs to be asked is this: "Do you have any sense of loyalty to the ummah and its Islamic state?" Those who answer in the affirmative pose a problem.

The Pentagon's 2010 after-action report, "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood," revealed a blind spot by failing to address the warning signs of Islamist radicalism that were abundantly clear prior to the massacre. Pvt. Abdo's history has shown again that our military leadership is not equipped to deal with the challenges political Islam presents to national security and the protection of our armed forces...

...Muslims have fought many wars against other Muslims. Certainly, for the vast majority our allegiance is first and only to the U.S. and never to any Islamist constructs of the Islamic state, the ummah, or jihad.

Faisal Shahzad, the confessed Times Square bomber, stated to the judge at his arraignment, "We Muslims are one community. We are not divided." He proclaimed that he was a "mujahid" or a "Muslim soldier." Nidal Hasan similarly called himself a "Soldier of Allah." This self-identification is central to the Islamist threat.

Yet the theological underpinnings of Islamist radicalization remain ignored by military officials, who fear appearing to discriminate against Muslim soldiers. That fear has been bolstered by leading Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups in America. Their platform of political Islam teaches Islamic revivalism and an aversion to the separation of mosque and state. the rest

PA: Judge Tosses out Anglo-Catholic Priest and Two Vestry in Parish Shake-Up

Defamed Attorney Files Lawsuit against Priest and Former Friend
Friends of Good Shepherd Issue Healing Statement
Special Report
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 30, 2011

After more than a decade of ecclesiastical infighting and lawsuits, Montgomery County Court Judge Stanley Ott delivered the final blow to the Anglo-Catholic rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, on Monday by saying Fr. David L. Moyer must leave the parish. He also ordered two men to step down from the Vestry. Real and personal property issues were not on the table.

It is the end of a long and bitter battle waged between the Diocese of Pennsylvania, its Bishop Charles E. Bennison, the Standing Committee and Fr. David L. Moyer (AKA Bishop Moyer of the Traditional Anglican Communion). The latter initially fought the bishop charging him with heresy and his failure to uphold a flying bishop arrangement for Anglo-Catholics made under his predecessor Bishop Alan Bartlett.

Moyer has instigated and been dogged by multiple lawsuits for nearly a decade.

The Anglo-Catholic priest first challenged Bennison in 2002 over doctrinal issues and the bishop's betrayal over a flying bishop arrangement agreement he and six other traditionalist priests had with the previous diocesan bishop Allan Bartlett. the rest

A.S. Haley: Judge Orders Removal of Good Shepherd's Rector, Two Vestry Members

FEMA'S use of term 'federal family' for government expands under Obama

By George Bennett
Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

Don’t think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”

In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has repeatedly used the phrase “federal family” when describing the Obama administration’s response to the storm.

The Obama administration didn’t invent the phrase but has taken it to new heights.

“Under the direction of President Obama and Secretary Janet Napolitano, the entire federal family is leaning forward to support our state, tribal and territorial partners along the East Coast,” a FEMA news release declared Friday as Irene churned toward landfall.

The G-word — “government” — has been nearly banished, with FEMA instead referring to federal, state and local “partners” as well as “offices” and “personnel." the rest

An orthodox speech on an elevator

August 22, 2011
Terry Mattingly

There is nothing unusual about a priest who is dressed in clerical garb having a stranger ask him a religious question during a long airline flight.

"You ask a guy where he's from and what he does and then he asks you the same thing. Many people just want to talk," explained Father John David Finley, a missionary priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

The man in the next seat recently asked the priest a question he has heard many times: "What is Orthodox Christianity, anyway?"

Ironically, Finley was -- at that moment -- writing some comments about a contest in which participants prepared a 30-second "elevator speech" response to strangers who asked that very question. The contest was organized by the archdiocesan Department of Missions and Evangelism, Finley's home base. the rest

Devotional: If you observe events in our day

If you observe events in our day that you consider to be God's judgement, don't doubt or lose hope. Look up and see God Almighty. His work of chastisement is to prepare us for the power. Like the early church we are to gather in unity, humility and repentance, waiting for the Spirit to be poured out-and continuing to believe for revival. ...John Dawson image

Bishop Wantland appointed chief justice of the Seminole Indian Nation

August 26, 2011
By George Conger

The Diocese of Forth Worth reports that its assisting bishop, the Rt Rev William Wantland, has been named the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Seminole Nation.

On 8 August, 2011, Bishop Wantland and two other justices took the oath of office for the American Indian tribal court which was formerly reinstated last year.

The Seminoles of Oklahoma are descendents of the Indian tribes expelled from Florida in the 1830s. The Seminole were recognized as an independent Indian Nation in 1856 by the US government after their resettlement West of the Mississippi.

In 1907 the US Congress removed all restrictions on white settlement in Indian Territory. During the reorganization Congress reduced the autonomy of the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chikasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole (so-called due to their successful integration into American society and adoption of Western culture). Indian tribal courts were abolished and the chief of each tribe was henceforth appointed by the Federal Government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A member of the Tusekia Harjo Band of the Seminole Nation, Bishop Wantland trained as a lawyer and as an Episcopal priest, and was a member of the committee that drafted the tribe’s constitution of 1969, which restored its right to elect its own chief. “However, there was no provision for a court system,” under the new constitution the bishop said, “because the Bureau of Indian Affairs said we could not have courts.” the rest

Few U.S. ob-gyns provide abortions: study

Thu Sep 1, 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly all obstetrician-gynecologists in the U.S. have patients who want abortions, but only a small percentage of the doctors provide them, suggests a new study that finds access to abortion remains limited, especially in certain areas of the country.

In a survey of 1,144 ob-gyns, researchers found that while 97 percent said they'd had patients who sought abortions, only 14 percent ever provided them. Doctors refusing to perform the procedure were especially concentrated in rural areas, the South and Midwest.

The 14 percent figure is lower than was found in a 2008 survey, where 22 percent of ob-gyns said they performed abortions. However, that study focused on younger doctors who had all been certified after a 1996 rule that made abortion training a required part of ob-gyn residency programs. the rest

End Child Pornography: Enforce Adult Pornography Laws

by Patrick A. Trueman
September 1, 2011

Ending child pornography is as much a matter of vigorously prosecuting those who distribute adult pornography as it is a matter of prosecuting child pornographers. Presidential candidates should pledge to initiate adult pornography criminal cases and fund research into the adult-child pornography link.

Since President Obama took office, the Department of Justice has not initiated one adult pornography criminal case. The reason, we are told, is that investigators are overwhelmed with child pornography cases. Problematically, a growing number of law enforcement officers and investigators report that consumption of adult pornography leads to consumption of child pornography.

The link between adult and child porn is observed globally, and it is nothing new. Fifteen years ago, at the 1996 World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Margaret Healy stated in a paper titled “Child Pornography: An International Perspective” that “with the emergence of the use of computers to traffic in child pornography, a new and growing segment of producers and consumers is being identified. They are individuals who may not have a sexual preference for children, but who have seen the gamut of adult pornography and who are searching for more bizarre material.” (Emphasis added) the rest

Warning: Your Romance May Be Dangerous to Your Kids

by Maggie Gallagher
08/31/2011

Excerpt:
For most of that time policymakers have focused on the problem of "father absence," and it is a real problem. Very few boys and girls have involved, loving, supportive fathers if the man that made them is not married to their mama.

But a new crop of research is challenging the idea that the main or only problem with the decline of marriage is the absence of fathers. An equally big or even bigger problem may be the churning romantic lives of unmarried and divorced mothers.

A new study in the July 2011 issue of Sociology of Education by Arizona State University professor Carey E. Cooper and colleagues (including Princeton's esteemed family scholar Sara S. McLanahan) looked at how "partnership instability" affected children's well-being at age 5, using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national survey that follows approximately 5,000 parents and their children from birth to age 5.

What sociologists call "externalizing" problems are behavior problems associated with aggression and rule-breaking. As Cooper and colleagues put it, the checklist asks mothers how often the child "attacks others, screams, sulks, is suspicious, teases, argues, bullies, is disobedient at school, is disobedient at home, destroys others' things, destroys own things, fights, threatens, and is unusually loud."

The rule-breaking subscale assesses whether a child, "prefers being with older children, runs away from home, sets fires, steals at home, steals outside of home, swears, hangs around with others who get in trouble, lies or cheats, and vandalizes."

In assessing "internalizing" problems, mothers are asked whether their child is "overly guilty, self-conscious, worried that no one loves them, worried they might think or do something bad, worried that they have to be perfect, and worried in general."

Attention problems include whether children "stare blankly, are confused, daydream, and act without thinking," while social problems include asking whether children "are not liked by other children, prefer being with younger children, get jealous easily, get teased a lot, and feel others are out to get them."

The results are striking. the rest

Parahawking

Parahawking is coming to the USA. These are a few shots of training a Harris's Hawk to fly with a paraglider.

Penn Hills church in Pittsburgh Anglican Diocese abandons its building

Thursday, September 01, 2011
Ann Rodgers
 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Another congregation in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh has decided to abandon its building, saying that it couldn't meet the financial or ecclesiastical demands that the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh made during negotiations for the property.

On Oct. 2 the 104 members of All Saints Church in Penn Hills will begin holding services in nearby Rosedale United Methodist Church.

"We are a poor church. We made the best offer we could possibly make, given our financial resources. Our offer was rejected out of hand," said the Rev. David Rucker, the rector of All Saints, in a statement released by the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

In addition to asking for more money than the parish could offer, he said, the Episcopal diocese wanted All Saints to disaffiliate from the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. the rest

As hurricane Katia picks up steam, potential tropical storm forming in Gulf

Hurricane forecasters now have two storms to watch: Hurricane Katia could be on its way to becoming a category 3 storm, while a storm system in the Gulf could organize into tropical storm Lee within 48 hours.
By Pete Spotts
September 1, 2011

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are moving into juggle mode as they track hurricane Katia in the Atlantic and a mass of storm clouds in the Gulf of Mexico that stands a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours.

This new system in the Gulf should encounter conditions Thursday that would strengthen it, forecasters say.

If that happens, the system could become a tropical depression within the next 24 hours, with the name Lee awaiting it if continues to strengthen to topical-storm status within the next two days. the rest

Taxpayers will foot big share of post-Irene flooding costs

US bishops’ lawyers accuse Obama Administration of ‘an unprecedented attack on religious liberty’

Wed Aug 31, 2011

(LifeSiteNews.com) — The general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to rescind its mandate forcing private insurance plans to cover contraception—including abortifacients—and sterilization, calling the mandate “unprecedented in federal law and more radical than any state contraceptive mandate.”

The USCCB also criticized the narrow “religious employer” exception to the mandate, explaining that it provides “no protection at all for individuals or insurers with a moral or religious objection to contraceptives or sterilization,” instead covering only “a very small subset of religious employers.”

In their August 31 comment to the HHS, Anthony Picarello, USCCB general counsel, and Michael Moses, associate general counsel, noted that the mandate to cover “all FDA-approved contraceptives” and “emergency contraceptives,” including at least one drug called Ella that can cause abortions, entails “nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchases ‘services’ to which they have a moral or religious objection.” This represents “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty,” they wrote. the rest

New Christchurch cathedral to be built out of cardboard

A Japanese architect is to build a new cathedral in the city of Christchurch out of cardboard.
By Julian Ryall, Tokyo
22 Aug 2011

The original 1864 cathedral was badly damaged in a major earthquake on February 22, with the bell tower completely destroyed.

A second quake, in June, caused further damage, shattering stained glass panels.

The city has yet to decide on a long-term replacement for the landmark and has commissioned architect Shigeru Ban to create a structure that will be ready by the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and last until the Anglican cathedral can be restored to its original condition.
Tokyo-based Mr Ban has earned a reputation for his use of cardboard – because it is recyclable and surprisingly strong – for large buildings.  the rest

Defrocked Episcopal priest loses bid to retain Montco parish

Thu, Sep. 1, 2011
By David O'Reilly

A Episcopal priest defrocked by the local diocese must step down as rector of his Rosemont parish and vacate the premises after 21 years there, a Montgomery County Court judge has ruled.

The Rev. David Moyer, 60, said Wednesday that he was saddened by Judge Stanley Ott's decision but would abide by his order to leave the Church of the Good Shepherd. He said he hoped to become a Roman Catholic priest.

An outspoken critic of liberal trends in the Episcopal Church, Moyer was defrocked in 2002 by the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania after he agreed to become a bishop in a small, conservative Anglican denomination. the rest